She Will Be Loved
by kaybee89
Summary: Danny keeps coming to Riley's rescue, saving her from horrible dates and embarrassment and even herself. He's easily become her best friend, yet she's scared of the feelings that are starting to sprout up. She won't ruin their friendship, and she flat out refuses to fall for another Wheeler. Doesn't she? **Well the summary sucks, but hopefully the story doesn't! T for now, M later?
1. Talking to Captain Morgan

Most days, Riley considered herself a strong, confident, very together young woman. She had worked hard for the past few years to accomplish all that she had, from getting into law school and losing the weight that had defined her all of her life. She was proud of herself, and took pleasure in the idea that she was in control of her life now.

But then there were days like today where that all went to hell and she felt like complete and utter shit.

It had been one of those days where nothing went right from the very beginning. She'd forgotten to meet with her partner to work on their paper the day before and had woken up to an angry message in her voicemail telling her just how worthless and disrespectful she was. She'd managed to burn both the pot of coffee and her toast, creating a morning of hunger and sleepiness that did nothing to help her focus in class. In addition, she'd shut her finger in the taxi door while rushing to work, which she was almost an hour late for because she'd dozed off at a Starbucks waiting for her drink order. She had also spent a lovely hour long conversation with her mother, sighing and "mmm-ing" while simultaneously having her personality and spirit torn to shreds from her ceaseless nitpicking. And the cherry on top of her ice cream sundae of a day, was the phone call from Ben just before her date, begging her to babysit for him tomorrow night so he could go out on yet another date with that bimbo from the insurance office.

So now, with a throbbing finger, tired red eyes, and no energy to summon up a decent smile, she sat across from her date, feeling ridiculous and grumpy and wishing the night would just end already.

Blind dates normally weren't her thing. First dates were hard enough without the increased levels of judgment and forced obligatory small talk about the people that had set you up in the first place. But her good friend from college had insisted, raving to her over the phone about how cute and successful her brother's ex girlfriend's older brother's roommate was and couldn't she just please give him a shot just this once pretty, pretty please?

And of course she relented, because if there was one thing she'd never accomplished it was how to say no.

As far as blind dates go, she supposed it could have been worse. Maybe. Jacob… or was it Jonathon… had a very nice smile and a good head of hair that Riley could tell he invested a lot of money in. He'd started off the evening asking her questions about herself, seeming to be interested in the answers she gave. But when she asked him what it was he did for a living, she inwardly cringed at his answer, immediately cursing her friend for thinking even for a second that she would get along with this person.

"I'm a model slash actor."

_Seriously?_ Riley thought to herself. _Just how many of you are there, and why do you find me?_

"Sort of in between jobs at the moment, but my agent's booked me some really promising stuff that I'm excited to dive into. They're very challenging roles, and far more diverse than anything I've been involved in before."

And from that moment on, it had been nothing but cranberry juice diet this and toothpaste commercial success that. Riley found whatever ounce of patience that remained inside of her fading rapidly, wishing he'd take her pointed silences as the large hint that they were and shut up about his teeth whitening routines and signature glute workout.

And good God, could he chew _any_ louder?

Riley eyed his plate like a hawk, waiting for that final moment when he dabbed at his mouth with the napkin and pushed the dirty plate away from himself signaling the end of his meal. He took his sweet time, cutting his steak like he was splitting atoms and sipping from his glass of wine so slowly she wasn't sure he was actually even drinking it. But finally, after a good thirty minutes of the longest meal of her life, her date set his silverware down on the plate and leaned back in his chair, looking satisfied and full.

"Let's get the check," she said immediately, glancing around the dimly lit restaurant for their waiter.

His laughter reached her ears and she turned back to face him, taking in that smile that while perfect for a toothpaste commercial was just a little too toothy for her taste. And a little too creepy, she might add, the way it had widened as the evening progressed.

"Don't you want desert?" He asked, motioning towards the table with his hand as if it were already sitting there before her.

She shook her head, no. "I'm fine. I'd like to just go home."

Jacob or Jonathon raised his eyebrows with a look that Riley didn't like one bit. Realizing what she could have implied with her words and hurried demeanor, and appalled at the guys interpretation of them stood up quickly, hitting the table with her knee and causing the plates to jump.

"I see," he chuckled quietly, hardly bothered by the fact she'd almost upset the entire table onto his lap. "You know, not to brag, but I have found that I make an excellent first date desert."

"Is that right?" She muttered, waving a hand at the waiter who acknowledged her with a curt nod before turning back to flirt with a blonde, curly haired waitress he'd been ignoring his tables for all night long.

"Yes," Jacob or Jonathon said. He paused for a moment, and despite herself Riley looked back at him to see why he was suddenly into simple responses. As soon as she had made eye contact, the too wide grin slipped back onto his face and he continued. "I've been told it's quite a treat. Rather large, a little too thick for some, perhaps, but the taste really just explodes in your mouth."

Riley went to nod again at whatever he was blathering on about, feigning interest before his words registered. Quickly she put his suggestive grin and his "desert" idea together and…

Oh, _ew_.

"I'm… I'm just going to go freshen up. In the ladies room. Right... yeah." And with that eloquent farewell, she turned on her heel and walked speedily towards the bathroom in the back corner near the swinging kitchen doors, feeling a rush of gratitude for that brave little stick woman on the bathroom door that guarded the room from creepy smiles and overly ambitious penises.

There was no one in the small bathroom when Riley entered. The quiet muzak that had been the soundtrack to her disastrous evening wasn't playing in here, and as she locked herself in a stall and sat down on the toilet, she was more than happy for the silence. When she closed her eyes, all she could see was that smarmy smile that had found its way onto her date's face, thinking he could just talk about himself all night and because he was attractive he'd get in her pants. Guys like that royally pissed her off, adding yet another negative emotion to the day's pile, and she sighed a deep, bone rattling sigh.

Unfortunately, she was stuck in here for a good while. She couldn't risk sneaking out because he knew where she'd gone, and the longer she kept him waiting the more often he would stare in the general direction of the restrooms, making any chance at getting to the front door of the restaurant and into a cab alone almost impossible. Figuring she had at the very least twenty minutes, Riley reached a hand into her purse and fumbled around for her phone, hoping to kill the time with a rousing few rounds of Angry Birds.

A half hour later, she stood and cracked open the door to survey the seating area to see if Giant Ego was still waiting for her. Joy flooded through her when she saw the table they'd been sitting at, the one with the tacky blue rose at its center, was Jacob/Jonathon-less and she could finally go home. With a gentle push she opened the door further and exited the bathroom, avoiding eye contact with anyone and making a beeline for the front door.

After hailing a taxi and giving the driver her address, she leaned her head back against the cracked leather seat and sighed, feeling more drained than normal. Between work, and law school, helping with Emma and attempting a social life, it wasn't hard for Riley to tire herself out. But the events of the day had done their worst to her, leaving her feeling like she'd just gone three rounds with Mohammed Ali and lost spectacularly.

And that guy… ugh. Why was it so hard to meet a decent guy, she wondered as she leaned her head against the cool window glass, watching the buildings blur together as they drove past. Deep down, Riley had really thought that after losing all the weight and making something of herself by getting into law school it wouldn't be so hard to catch some guy's eye. It worked for every other girl she knew. All they had to do was put on a pair of heels and smile and to them guys flocked, like freaking boats to a lighthouse. She must be missing something, some huge dating secret that no one had ever thought to clue her in on. It was really just unfair, considering how she'd spent those prime learning how to date years being called Fat Pants and Rigantor by just about every adolescent she knew.

Didn't she deserve to be called beautiful every once in a while by a man who adored her? Was that really so much to ask for?

Later, with the door locked and her heels tossed off onto the floor, Riley slumped onto the couch, feeling more miserable than before. Yet another Friday night gone bust, another lonely late night marathon of I Love Lucy re runs spent in the company of a pint of fat free, sugar free, organic fro-yo. It was too pathetic for words.

Which is why, once she'd peeled herself off of the couch and changed out of the outfit that, admittedly, made her look like she was trying too hard and slipped on a pair of sweatpants, she decided that if she was going to be pathetic and alone, she was at least going to be drunk and pathetic and alone. Just to, you know, make it all easier to handle. Or forget about… she wasn't quite sure which yet.

"Hello Mr. Morgan," she mumbled, pulling out a fifth of Captain and a glass from the cupboard above the fridge. "Hope you're evening's been better than mine has been." She glanced in her mostly empty fridge and found a half empty two liter of diet Pepsi she vaguely remembered buying a couple of weeks ago. She was disappointed to find she'd forgotten to refill the ice tray, though, and so began busying herself with making a flat, coke-less, and warm rum and coke.

"You know, I should've known it was going to end badly… blind dates always do. Or at least mine do, anyway. But you should have seen him, thinking he was going to score even after that awful dinner just because he's got a pair of dimples and an ass that looks good in some jeans. I mean, c'mon. Actor slash model? He has to know there's a million of him floating around out there, doesn't he? And is that really the kind of message I give off…?"

And then she realized she was talking to a bottle of alcohol.

And that was when she started to cry.


	2. Crying on the Telephone

Danny was tired in every sense of the word. He'd spent the last three days in Detroit for a three game series against the Red Wings, and while they hadn't won overall they'd managed to squeak out a single game win at the end. He hadn't played his best, and was already stressing about the kind of press he was going to receive from the sports pages tomorrow. Besides that, he'd been pounced on by both his little brother and his roommate before he'd even gotten the front door shut, pleading with him to babysit for the night. And while he'd wanted to say no and just go to sleep, he'd reluctantly agreed and spent the past four hours feeding, bathing, and entertaining the baby. Which, when he thought about it, had been almost more exhausting than the entire three game series.

With both Ben and Tucker out, and Emma finally asleep in her crib, the apartment was uncharacteristically quiet. Normally, Danny enjoyed the general chaos living with two other guys and an infant brought around. There was always someone around to talk to, or in Emma's case, someone to take care of, and he enjoyed knowing that after a long, cut throat practice or game he had something of a family to come home to instead of the stark, empty apartments he usually inhabited.

But tonight, with aching muscles and exhaustion setting in on his brain, he was more than grateful for the absolute quiet and looked forward to spending the remainder of his evening sprawled out on the living room couch, watching Sportscenter, and eating left over pizza from the box Tucker had labeled in thick, black sharpie: DANNY DO NOT EAT OR SO HELP ME GOD I WILL KILL YOU!

Danny had thought the extra exclamation point was cute; an excellent additional attempt to get his point across, because the capital letters and single exclamation point weren't enough. But Tucker was almost two feet shorter than him, and he was hungry. The pros greatly outweighed the cons in this situation. So, after devouring a couple of cold slices and feeling that general contentment that only comes from eating junk food in front of an ESPN sports special, Danny stretched out on the couch as best as he could considering his size and zoned out.

He got up once to check on Emma, tip toeing across Ben's room toward her sleeping form. The guys always made fun of him for how long it took him to check on her, but he just felt like he was being extra thorough. Ever since Ben had told him about that scary baby thing… Skids, was it?... where the babies just stopped breathing while they were asleep for no reason, he'd felt the need to count her breaths up to fifty with his hand on her back so he could feel the rise and fall that assured him she was still healthy and perfect and fine.

Danny smiled as he did just that, feeling the warmth of her little body seep into his hand and pleased to find her breaths even and normal just like always. She didn't know it quite yet, but Emma had three completely grown men wrapped around her itty bitty finger, and he was one of them. She wasn't his daughter, but he felt a fierce need to protect her as if she were, and so would continue to go through his rituals to make sure she was breathing no matter what anyone said.

It might have been the darkness in Emma's room, or the calming, meditative like trance from counting so slowly and evenly, but when Danny returned to his spot on the couch he could hardly keep his eyes open. Going to bed made plenty of sense, but he was already here and comfortable. Besides, just the thought of walking himself back across the apartment to his own bed exhausted him to no end. He didn't even bother to turn off the TV, but rolled on his side and let the two ton anvils that had attached themselves to his eyelids shut for the night.

It might have been minutes or hours later when a shrill ring pierced his ear drums, invading whatever dream he'd started and he groaned. With eyes still closed, he flung out an arm towards the coffee table where the offending phone rang and vibrated, grasping it and holding it to his ear, annoyed.

"Hullo?" He slightly growled into the phone, thinking it was just Ben or Tucker asking to be buzzed in. Supposedly he was the dumb one of the three, yet he was the only one who ever managed to remember his damn keys.

"Danny?"

At the sound of her voice he immediately felt more alert.

"Riley?" He asked, opening his eyes fully and sitting up on the couch, searching blindly for the remote to mute the TV. "Are you ok? You sound kind of funny."

Muffled sounds came through the phone then, too indistinct for him to place entirely. A loud trumpeting sound came through loud and clear, sort of like an elephant. Maybe she was watching National Geographic? After a couple of sniffs on her end, she spoke again, her voice thick and slurred.

"Danny I am not okay. I am very much not a-okay."

Panic started to wrap its bony fingers around his heart, squeezing just enough that it was suddenly harder to breathe. "What's wrong? Where are you?" He asked hurriedly, feeling his free hand ball into a tense fist and ashamed that the words wouldn't come out faster.

She giggled, or at least he thought she did, although it sounded rather lackluster. "I'm at home, sitting on my couch, because it's Friday."

"Well that doesn't sound like much of a Friday night, Riles," he said slowly, keeping his voice low and gentle.

There was a silence followed by what sounded like a sob, the kind that sounded raw and desperate, far worse than the normal weepy phone calls he got sometimes from girls when he didn't call them after a hook up. "I know," Riley groaned, before erupting into a quiet series of sobs that, unbeknownst to her, were sending arrows of pain straight into his heart. He thought he hated girls crying before this, but was surprised how genuinely upset it made him when it was _her_ crying. When it was _her_ he didn't know how to help or comfort.

"Riley, did something happen?" He asked again, leaning forward on the couch, ready to jump into action as soon as he figured out what was wrong.

After a large sniff and hiccup, Riley spoke again. Danny strained to separate the words she was saying and form them into coherent sentences that he could understand. But between the tears and sniffles and thickness whatever she'd clearly been drinking had given her, it was a difficult task. The basic gist, he gathered, was that she'd had a terrible day, followed by a terrible, creepy blind date, and now she was alone and sad in her apartment… feeling terrible.

"I didn't mean to call you," she said suddenly, breaking off her earlier thought (something about talking to a pirate) mid sentence catching Danny off guard.

"Well that's ok," he said, ignoring the little pang he felt. Of course she hadn't meant to call him. She'd probably meant to call Ben. "I'm glad you did."

"You are?" She said in a voice so small and insecure, so unlike the Riley that he knew it made his heart hurt all over again.

"Of course I am."

"Why?" She asked pitifully. "I've just cried and got snot all over your phone and… and cried."

Danny suppressed the urge to laugh. "Riley, you're not getting any snot on my phone. You're talking on your phone, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," she said quietly. "Gross."

He couldn't help but smile. Even sad and upset, she was too adorable for words. Her sobs had quieted, with only the occasional sniff filtering through the phone, which he thought was encouraging. But he didn't like the idea of her sitting by herself in her apartment, with only rum and that god awful ice cream substitute she forced them all to try once for company.

"Hey, Riley?" He asked after a moment. She made some incoherent grunting noise that he took to mean 'go on' and he took in a deep breath and held it. "Do you… do you think maybe I should come over?"

It was quiet on the other end for a while; the static silence filled him with a slow burning dread. Who was he kidding? Even a drunk and upset Riley would never want him to come over to take care of her. She was far too independent, and didn't see him as the kind of guy who'd drop everything to come to her rescue. Even though, he most definitely was. And not that she needed rescuing, exactly, but he'd just thought maybe she could use…

"Okay," she whispered.

"Yeah? Okay, well do you need me to bring you… oh, shit." He smacked his forehead, glancing toward the back hall where Emma and Ben's door was cracked open. "I can't come over Riley. I completely forgot I've got Emma for the night."

He half expected her to burst into tears again over the fact that his babysitting Emma this late at night meant that Ben was out on a date. With some girl who, obviously, wasn't her.

"Well would it be too much trouble if I came over to you?" She asked instead, surprising him and filling him to the brim with a hopeful joy. Leave it to her to be so polite while being so obviously hammered. Still, he wasn't sure she was in the best state of mind to be traveling, even if it was only a couple of blocks away. It was late and anything could happen to her. But on the other hand, he didn't want her to be alone.

"Of course not," he answered. "I'm going to call you a cab, ok? Do you promise you'll come straight here?"

It was her turn to chuckle at his worrying. She didn't say anything for a moment, but he could hear her moving around her apartment, indistinct thunking and muttering as well as the jangle of keys. "Danny," she slurred slightly. "I'll be fine. I don't need you to call a cab. I can just walk."

"No, Riley, I don't think that's a very good idea."

She laughed again. Danny heard a door slam shut, and felt that icy grip of panic around his heart again. What did she think she was doing? She couldn't walk here in her condition. Didn't she know what kinds of horrible things happened to drunken girls who walked alone at night in New York City?

"Shh," she hushed. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Riley!" Danny protested, jumping to his feet just as she hung up the phone, disconnecting them. He looked down at his phone, and mentally cursed his big, stupid mouth. She never would have left her apartment if he hadn't suggested anything in the first place. He should have just talked to her on the phone until she'd calmed down completely, maybe until she'd fallen asleep. He would have liked that, he thought, having the last thing she heard before she fell into her deep, drunken sleep was his voice.

_But none of that matters, as she's stumbling her way over here right now_, he thought. Danny felt like a coil ready to spring, as wound up as he was with nervous energy and worry, and he began to pace after a moment. Walking a path from the door to the kitchen island and back, phone in hand, waiting for her to show up and running over every possible thing that could go wrong from there to here.

God, he thought shaking his head. If anything happens to her…

_If anything happens to her I will never forgive myself. _


	3. Wipe Your Eyes

It took Riley all of about ten seconds to realize that walking to Danny's apartment wasn't a very good idea, starting when she arrived at the elevator and saw the panel of buttons begin to swirl in front of her fingertips. No matter how hard she stared they wouldn't line up and come into focus for her, and she couldn't remember, was it the third floor she lived on or the fifth? And did that make a difference? She briefly glanced at the stairwell before deciding that was an even worse idea and sighed. How was she going to get to Danny's if she couldn't even push the right button? Finally, with a roll of her eyes, she smacked her hand against both of the little round buttons beside the doors, figuring the dumb elevator would just have to figure it out on its own.

She fumbled behind her for the wall, needing to lean against something. All that walking and thinking had tired her out. Slumping against it, she began to stare at the elevator doors, waiting for them to open and let her inside. After a minute, when they didn't open, frustration surged through her. Why couldn't she make this one little thing happen? All she wanted was for the doors to open, but she was so pathetic she couldn't even do _that_. Her head felt heavy and everything was starting to develop a foggy appearance. Slowly she slid down along the wall until she was sitting upright, still staring at the doors, feeling tears begin to form at the back of her eyes again.

Now that she was here, she couldn't quite remember why leaving her apartment was so important. She'd clearly gotten a little too friendly with the rum, and was sure it was probably better for her to just crawl back to her apartment and call it a night. While she didn't think the night could get any worse, there was always the chance that stumbling around outside with no clear sense of direction might end badly for her. And besides, this floor was so comfortable. Maybe she'd just lie down and take a little nap… when she woke up the doors would be open and then she could go see Danny.

Suddenly she was being shaken awake, a large hand curled around her arm.

"Riley?" The deep voice asked. "Riley, wake up."

When she opened her bleary eyes she saw Danny's face hovering above her, his bright blue eyes wide with concern. Groggily she sat up with Danny's hands still on her arms and looked around, feeling disoriented.

"Are you alright?" Danny asked her, squatting down in front of her so he was more on her level.

She nodded, frowning. "The doors won't open and I was tired. I just closed my eyes a second ago because the doors won't open, Danny," she tried to explain, the words still having to travel through a thick layer of fog before leaving her mouth. "How'd you get here so fast?"

Despite his worry, Danny felt the corner's of his mouth quirk up into a small smile. "Riley, you hung up on me almost twenty minutes ago. You've probably been sleeping here on the floor for a good fifteen of that."

"Oh," was all she could say, trying as hard as she was to wrap her brain around the fact that she'd been sleeping in the hallway for longer than just a few seconds.

Danny lifted a hand off of her arm and placed it gently on her flushed cheek. "You had me worried sick," he whispered, slowly rubbing his thumb across her cheekbone.

"But… baby," Riley said, closing her eyes again. It felt nice, his hand on her cheek wiping away the salty tears. She didn't ever want him to stop.

"Tuck came home just a couple minutes after you called," Danny explained, his low voice soothing her confused brain. "He's with Emma."

Riley tried to nod in understanding but her head still felt so heavy, like someone had poured cement inside of it and she hit her chin on her chest.

"C'mon," Danny said, starting to pull her into a standing position. "Let's get you to bed."

Suddenly she felt wide awake.

"No!" She protested, jerking her body out from underneath his hands. "Don't take me back there!" Danny looked alarmed at her outburst, and seeing that look on his face broke something inside of her. He was only trying to help her. She didn't need to be so mean and childish about it. She looked down at her hands, sitting pale and lifeless in her lap and wished she wasn't so drunk so she could better explain herself.

"I just… it's so sad in there, Danny," she said, avoiding his eyes. She could feel them on her, practically burning holes into her skin, but she couldn't quite muster the courage to look into them while she admitted something so personal. "It's like nobody lives there. I mean, I live there. I eat and sleep and study in there… but I don't really _live_ in there. You know?"

Danny didn't quite know, but he nodded like he understood perfectly. He sat down beside her with his back against the wall, feeling the brush of her arm against his as he did so and wishing more than anything that he could take the hurt away from her.

"I'm just a ghost who floats around, washing dishes and reading law books and… and practicing making nice meals for two when there's only one of me around to eat it." Her voice cracked and she placed her head in her hands in defeat. Immediately, almost on impulse, he wrapped a strong arm around her and held her to his side. He let her cry for a moment into his shoulder, feeling the wetness of her tears dampen his shirt.

"Riley, you're not a ghost," he said quietly, soothingly rubbing her arm. "You're just sad."

She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked into up into his eyes. Her eyes were shiny and her nose was red and puffy. "I don't want to be sad," she said, very matter-of-factly.

"I know you don't," Danny replied. God, if he could just tell her that he loved her, that she was the one thing he wanted more than anything in the entire world… well at least she would know she was loved. But he was a coward, and could offer her everything but his true feelings at the moment.

He let a few more minutes pass before he attempted getting her off the floor again. If she didn't want to go back to her apartment, he'd take her home with him and let her sleep in his bed. It was probably best she was with people anyway, in case she decided to start puking all over the place. Slowly, he started to stand, dragging Riley up with him. When he was sure she was steady, he reached across the hall and pushed the down button, its sudden red glow alerting him to its eminent arrival. While they stood in front of the doors waiting for them to slide open he almost jumped right out of his skin when he felt Riley slide her hand in his, grasping tightly. He glanced down at their fingers, suddenly entwined and felt simultaneous joy and sorrow. He loved the feel of her small, delicate hand in his, the way it just seemed to fit so nicely inside of his large one.

But she would never have held his hand if she weren't drunk and sad and needing a friend. Because, when he got right down to it, that's all he still was to her. Her friend.

The doors opened with a bell like tone, sliding and revealing an empty elevator which they walked into silently. He pushed the ground floor button and together they watched the doors slide shut, the hallway disappearing, her hand still tangled with his.

A half hour later, Riley was sitting on the couch in the guys' apartment with dry eyes while Danny worked his way around the kitchen making tea.

When he'd first offered it to her, she'd looked at him with a look just short of incredulousness.

"You know how to make tea?" She asked as he led her to the couch. "No, wait, scratch that. You _bought_ tea?"

"Well," he said, his cheeks erupting in a fiery blush that luckily she was too out of her right mind to notice. "You mentioned this one time that you liked green herbal tea, that it was really healthy and relaxing so I bought some to have around the apartment. You know… just in case you had to come babysit, or you were just over hanging out. Or something."

He was rewarded with a smile that while not her usual bright and beautiful grin, still sent his heart spiraling down into his stomach.

"Thank you, Danny," she said. "I'd love some."

He'd been unsure how to go about making it though, considering they didn't own a tea pot. Not that he knew how to use one of those anyway. All he knew about tea is that the pot, the one they didn't own, whistled really loudly when it was done making the tea. Or maybe it just boiled the water? Eventually he just boiled water in the pan they used to make pasta and poured it messily into a plain black mug, feeling some slop onto the leg of his jeans. He stuck the pungent bag of tea into the mug, wondering why anyone would want to drink something that looked like dead, crunched up leaves.

But Riley accepted the warm mug gratefully, taking a deep breath of its scent and letting the tendrils of steam kiss her face. "Thanks," she said again. "This is really sweet of you."

"Of course," he said, sitting down beside her. He was actually pretty pleased with himself and the fact that he had yet to screw anything up yet.

She placed a gentle hand on his knee with a small smile before taking a tentative sip of her drink. The heat of her hand seeped through his pants, burning far hotter than the boiling hot water from moments ago had. When she didn't automatically spit it out, he relaxed a little, leaning back into the cushions and trying not to make it obvious he couldn't stop staring at her.

After a few sips Riley put the mug down on the coffee table and got comfortable as well, tucking her feet up on the couch beside her. She knew she should say something, apologize for the trouble and worry she'd caused Danny. But the quiet was delicious, and sitting beside his large presence with warm tea in her belly was filling her with a calm she hadn't felt in a long time.

"Whenever you're tired you can just go on back to my room and sleep, ok?" Danny said.

Riley shook her head. "Oh no," she protested. "I can't do that. I won't take your bed from you on top of everything else."

Danny chuckled. "Please, Riley. Just take it. This couch is really comfortable anyway, and I've been dying for an excuse to sleep here. Really, you'd be doing me the favor."

"Oh, don't placate me," Riley said, smacking his arm.

Danny laughed. If she was using words he didn't understand and smacking him around, she had to be feeling at least a little bit better. "I'm not! I'm just trying to take care of you."

Riley felt her heart constrict in her chest at his words. He was being so sweet to her, and she didn't deserve any of it. "You didn't have to," she said quietly, ashamed that was all she could think to say. "Really, you didn't have to do any of this."

He wanted to tell her that, yes, actually he had to. That taking care of her and making sure she was ok was never _not_ an option.

He watched as she lay down, stretching out on the couch and closing her eyes. She was so tired. Danny patted her leg before starting to stand, trying to disturb the cushions as little as possible.

"Hey, Danny?" He heard her say, her soft voice floating through the semi darkness.

"Yeah?"

She opened her eyes, fighting the heavy weight of her eyelids as she looked up at Danny's tall frame standing over her.

"Could you… do you think that maybe… well, you might want to stay with me?"

_Might_ want to stay with her? Didn't she know that all he wanted for the rest of forever was to stay with her? That of course he'd spend the night, cramped and squished on the couch beside her while his own bed lay empty ten feet away. That he'd hold her close and keep her company because she needed it, while inside his heart ached at being so close to her and yet still so far away.

"Sure," he answered simply, trying to keep his voice neutral.

She smiled up at him and as if on cue his heart started to ache with wanting her. He sat back down on the couch, kicking off his shoes and situating himself around her. It was usually difficult to get comfortable on a couch when he was alone, let alone trying to get another person comfortable beside him. He lay against the inside of the couch, tucking his arm around her thin frame as she threw an arm across his abdomen and burrowed her head onto his chest. For a moment he was painfully aware of every breath he took, of every twitch and readjustment his body made. He was even more aware of every where their bodies touched and overlapped, the sheer closeness of her making him delirious with a joy he wasn't sure he'd ever felt before.

Danny knew it didn't mean anything, her asking him to stay with her while she slept. But that didn't stop him from letting his mind pretend that all of this was real, that Riley was laying here wrapped in his arms because she loved him just as fiercely as he loved her. And long after her breathing slowed, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm that signaled she'd finally hopped the boat to dreamland, he couldn't help but kiss the top of her head.

"Sleep tight, Riley," he said, closing his eyes and inviting sleep to take him under. "I love you."


End file.
